By Eze Jude .O
Your Excellencies,
The reported move by the North to impose embargo on food supply to the south, perhaps might have been aimed at inflating perceived ego on the false claim to self-sufficiency, just to deflate that of the south, in a sextuplet federation called Nigeria. And worse still, is the fact that the term "South" is a misnomer or an envelope word probably used to specifically represent the Igbos of the South East each time such ultimatum is given.
It rightly or wrongly, gives the impression of intolerance traits which is believed, in some quarters, to be a pointer that if the North is monopolistically endowed with crude oil like the south, there would have been no Nigeria.
An impression also, is that by the ban, the North have made the south look like clochard mendicants, pauperized panhandlers and obligate parasites in a nation that sprouted on synergistic symbiosis. But the evident truth is that every region of Nigeria contributes, in one way or another, to the growth, development and sundry security of the nation called Nigeria. Another evident reality, drawing from the Brookings Book of Poverty, is that the North as a region, is known to have the highest number of extremely poor people in Nigeria. The reasons are essentially circumstantial, but deliberate in some cases.
Without prejudice to a press statement by the Middle Belt Forum -- an association of all ethnic nationalities within Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Kwara, etc, dissociating themselves from the pronouncement, the government is expected to have made a cautionary and re-assuring pronouncements on that matter. Such arrogance ought to have been rebuked, after all, the farmlands in the South are as arable as those of the North.
However, the importunate order may have done more good than harm to the south, if South can make good use of the perceived "insult" to turn her agricultural potentials and nature's fortunes around. This ill-advised sanction by the North was self-limiting and unsustainable, to say the least. But as a nation, we still should not gloss over such divisive action. It does not build a nation of one united people which is supposedly the foundational cornerstone for which Nigeria was built, abinitio.
An Igbo proverb had it that the orphans learn wisdom by eavesdropping on the advice other parents give their children. This incident should therefore serve as a challenge to you Igbo governors on the platform of South East Governors Forum (SEGF) and also to other Southern governors in both South West and South South Geo-political zones, to look inwards and revolutionize the Agricultural sector of the Igbo-speaking Eastern Nigeria and those of the South generally.
I will however counsel that we learn from the advisory of John Boozman, when he said: "Now listen, the one thing about agriculture is: we may have lost our manufacturing, we’ve lost a great deal of jobs, lots of our industry. But the last thing in the world we need to do is, lose the ability to produce our food”
For a fact, we know, our people in the South East, for instance, left commercial farming for mercantile commerce after the civil war. They needed quick recovery from the devastating poverty that the war and the post-war austerity policy threw our people into. But more than fifty years down the line, the North appears to be indirectly reminding us that it is time to diversify our economy as a region. Let's overlook their current date with World Poverty Clock and take a lesson!
Can we launch a viable South East agro-economic renaissance, for instance, which the erstwhile Ohaneze Ndigbo President General, Chief Nnia Nwodo, had advocated for while in office? Can our Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, revitalize our regional farming potentials? Can you the South East Governors, grant subsidy and loan leverages to farmers, and initiate our own regional equivalent of FADAMA projects?
Between 1989 and 1991, there was a fecund agricultural policy formulated and implemented by a one time Military Governor of old Anambra state, Col. Nnaemeka Akonobi (retd) called Mobilization Of Schools for Agriculture and Industry (MOSAI) in Old Anambra state. It incorporated agricultural and industrial trainings into the curriculum of all primary schools in the state, in the spirit of "catch them young" for diversification of the state's economy. He handed over it over to the civilian regime and the program was scuttled. Can you all in the South East Governors Forum (SEGF) resurrect and replicate it? Can you launch an inter-ministerial committee of all South East Commissioners for Agriculture with this laudable end in view?
You don't even need researches to see that poor policy-making decisions and indifference on the part of some governors, are the principal reasons why the agriculture sector in the east is in bad shape!
Without intention to impugn, shouldn't it be worrisome indeed that a substantially arid or desert-ridden region of Nigeria like the North, is threatening the Savanna Rain Forest of the South with starvation? Any such threat or plan can only work if the political and ethno-traditional leaders and potentates of the Southern Nigeria like you wills it. Ordinarily, with optimal annual rainfall, and sufficient sunlight, the South is supposed to be producers and suppliers of food stuffs to all parts of Nigeria and even export to other parts of the world. And this is a region (North) that has been in the throes of intractable armed insurrengency, banditry and kidnapping, which has severely affected farming activities in that area negatively. Your Excellencies, how did we allow ourselves to be such food 'dependent'?
Dear Igbo Governors, be forewarned that policies fail due to inability of various regimes in power, from independence, to have a meritocratic system of recruiting the best hands for government jobs. This mediocratic promotion of this practice, has further given room for the malfunctioning of profound programmes such as agricultural schemes. The art of agro-economic policy-making became the pre-occupation of unskilled and less educated politicians and mediocre party stalwarts in government who had little or no knowledge about policy formulations, implementation and evaluation.
Due to the fact that most policy-making process in Nigeria lacked technocrats and skilled bureaucrats, technical tools of analysis such as Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) were lacking in the art of policy-making. Government officials were not interested in evaluating the success or otherwise of their policies. Thus, it is no surprise that most of them failed. This should not be permitted again, if the South East Governors Forum (SEGF) can make any headway in revitalizing agribusiness in Igbo land.
The impacts of domestic socio-political factors also played prominent role in the failure of agriculture programmes as conflicts and political violence that transverse the polity trickled down to irregularities in the policies made. The exit of USAID in the ‘80s put a hold on research activities in agriculture sector up to two decades later. The failure of some of our state Governments to make honest move towards curbing intra-state wars like the then Aguleri-Umuleri conflict, and Ezza-Ezillo wars, was another cog in the wheel of progress.
Your Excellencies, for the agriculture sector to thrive in the South, particularly in the South East, there must be in place the appropriate technology needed to kick-start and consolidate crop production and animal husbandry. While, over the past twenty years, various states made policy statements to achieve good goals, such as providing food for their people and for export markets, the technology needed to achieve them was never available.
For example: although we have had a University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia state, for many decades now, the institution suffered from inadequate funding occasioned by corrupt practices and lack of mechanized apparatuses that would have developed the local content initiatives and make the South East (and by extension Nigeria) buoyant in food production.
Another major blow is the geometrical increase in corruption indices due to lax in the rules of the game, as material cum financial resources meant for agriculture found their way into private pockets of politicians, civil servants and other privileged hands. In short, due process and innovative ideas were ignored in the policy transfer protocols with government officials paying more attention to receiving gratifications. The inability of various regimes in the South Eastern states to have appropriate feedback mechanism which would have transformed early agriculture policy failure into a learning point, also facilitated avoidable implementation failures in the sector.
What value have we derived from the Imo River Basin Developmemt Authority? Imo Palm produce industry was never looked into. Adani rice in Nsukka, the Mmiata Anam as well as Abakaliki rice farms projects have suffered serial negligence from successive governments in the South East. Sunrise Flour Mills in Onitsha has not served us appreciable good so far. The list is infact endless! It is also imperative to consider domestic socio-political conditions while integrating lessons drawn from successful policy systems with home-grown solutions.
Dear South East Governors, Agriculturists, researchers and more importantly, the farmers/rural dwellers that are normally ignored during planning and implementation of agricultural/rural development programmes, should all be taken on board since they are in a better position to identify the policies and programme that will be tailored to the need of the farmers/masses.
The Enugu State Agricultural Development Program (ENADEP) did well in this regard between 2001-2006. It is time to wake it up again to new reality in the wake of seeming inter-regional apathy by the North. Other states should copy it. There should be continuity and perpetual implementation of agriculture development policies by successive governments for the impact of the policies to be felt on our regional economy.
We survived genocidal war with N20 (twenty naira), optimistically, with similar devoted fraternal cohesion, we will boost our agro-economy and feed ourselves by ourselves. The only thing needed is political will, which only you (the current members of the South East Governors Forum, SEGF) can provide.
Thank you your Excellencies!
God bless Igbo nation, the land of the rising Sun!
...Eze Jude .O, is a Laboratory Scientist and Public Affairs Analyst. NNL.
